The Limburg District Court in Maastricht has ruled that the Dutch pirate IPTV linker under the name of Leaper Beheer BV needs to shut down its services or pay €1.25 million.
The legal action was started by anti-piracy industry association Brein.
Leaper Beheer offered more than 4,000 channels including premium sports and movie channels and used to operate under different names including DitisTV, Flicksstore.nl, Livetvstore.eu, Canalonline.eu, Digiantenne.com and Kodeeshop.com.
The pirate operator would provide its customners the link to a .M3U playlist, where thousands of channels could be watched,
In its defense, Leaper Beheer said that all it did was provide a convenient link-shortening service for the content that the users could already find online on their own.
However, the Maastricht Court decided the plaintiff has to close down its service with a €1.25 million fine if it does not comply. Also, Leader Beheer has to pay €20,700 in costs.
In addition, the judge ruled that the pirate operator needs to open up its books to Brein. The association also said that it will, prosecute the two people behind Leader Beheer for damages.
